Noose Threatens Construction Worker in Pittsburgh

A worker at a construction site in the Pittsburgh area found a noose on the second floor of the site in his work area. The construction company, Zambrano, turned the incident over to the O'Hara Township police and the FBI. This is the third similar incident in the Pittsburgh region this week.

On Wednesday, a Verizon worker said someone left a noose around a doll's neck with a note saying she didn't deserve a promotion. The doll was left on her desk in an inner-office envelope at the Verizon Wireless complex in Cranberry. Verizon is still investigating.

On Monday, a doll bearing a racial slur was found hanging in the hallway of the Port Authority's East Liberty garage. Officials said the threat was not directed at a specific person. Police are investigating, but no arrests have been made.

Villagers, it is more and more evident that the three child 'pranksters' in Jena, LA that hung those nooses on the white tree at the local high school have unleashed a virulent form of racist behavior in our country. Law enforcement officials need to catch some of these fools before the stakes are elevated by an actual lynching attempt. We see more and more incidents ... however, we are not seeing anyone getting arrested for these hate crimes. What's up with that?

Noose Investigation at Coast Guard is Re-Opened

Villagers, you may recall that a 6-inch string tied as a noose was found in an African American cadet's sea bag in July while he was serving aboard the historic tall ship Eagle. And during race-relations training in August -- set up in response to the first incident -- a white female civil rights instructor found a small noose in her office at the academy in New London, Connecticut. Neither incident became public until last week. Initial investigations failed to discover who was responsible.
The Coast Guard Academy has about 980 cadets, about 14 percent of whom are minorities, compared with 16 percent in 1991. African Americans make up about 4 Minorities comprised only 7 percent of the faculty and staff, and fewer than 1 percent of captains on active duty are Black.

Last week, after the incidents became public, the Coast Guard agreed to investigate further. The head of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) spoke to cadets at the Coast Guard Academy about the discovery this summer of two small hangman's nooses on Coast Guard properties.

Click here to see video of remarks by Allen and Cummings
The noose, to African Americans, is a symbol of hatred and it takes us back to the times when Black folks were being lynched regularly. Villagers, we need to keep our eyes open about this disturbing trend that is flowing through America since the three young 'pranksters' hung those three nooses on the so-called white tree in Jena, LA. If justice on those three had been swift and severe ... we may not be in our current deteriorating race relations climate.

Villagers, what say u?

Swastika, 'KKK' Written on Deaf Black Student

Drumbeats from Boo Goo Doo Boom informed us that hate crimes occur in the deaf community as well as in Jena, LA. We have posted in the past about the struggles experienced by African Americans in the deaf community.

Now we learn that a group of white and Black students got "angry with each other" over the weekend on Gallaudet University campus. Six white students and one Black student -- all between the ages of 15 and 19 -- took a Black student into a dorm room and "held him there against his will." The seven bullies in this case used markers to write 'KKK' and draw swastikas on the Black student.

Click here for the full CNN article
All seven of the teens engaged in the attack have been identified and expelled from school. They could face criminal charges with enhanced penalties because it is a hate crime. The school is a residential high school on the campus of Gallaudet University, a higher education facility for deaf and hard of hearing people.

Villagers, what do we need to do in order to have a safe and supportive learning enviornment for our children? The words of Jim Clingman are ringing loudly in my ears -- 'Here a Jena, There a Jena, Everywhere a Jena-Jena'.

I am left to wonder what we can do to protect our children from these overtly racist behaviors? And what was that Black child thinking when he wrote 'KKK' on one of his nubian classmates?

Sixth Grade Students Defend Slavery

Villagers, do you remember when a prominent republican downplayed the significance of slavery last month? The slippery slope leads us to Caldwell, NJ where we learn over 100 sixth grade students at Grover Cleveland Middle School have been asked to take part in an assignment where they defend slavery. Students were told that they needed to come up with a "catchy" name for the plantation and list at least three reasons why slave labor is a good idea.

Click here to see video news report on the situation.
One student noted in his paper that "slavery is the way to go". Now we have over 100 young people who can conceive of slavery as a good thing. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.

That is a scary thought for our nation. It is sad when we have people ready to joke about lynching in Facebook videos or hang nooses in public places. Lynching and slavery are not joking matters.

When will President Bush speak out against this nonsense? Why are the two teachers at Cleveland Middle School still working as educators responsible for molding the minds of our future?

Villagers, what say u?

Blog of the Day Award Winner

The Electronic Village honored with Blog of the Day Award on October 2, 2007. I must admit that it feels good to be recognized by others in the blogosphere for the time and effort that is placed into creating our village. Thank you to anyone that helped us receive this award. I encourage you to nominate others that you think worthy of this award. None of us are paid for the time we spend on these blogs ... so, it is nice when people take time to nominate or select us for these online honors.

Asante Sana!

Racism At Work Leads To Jail Time

Villagers, did you see where a bigoted supervisor was sentenced to jail recently in a rare federal prosecution involving civil rights violations in the workplace.

U.S. District Judge Janet Hall sentenced 43-year-old Stephen Judge on Tuesday to six months in prison and ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine. The bigoted supervisor lost his job and his home as a result of his racist actions towards a member of his workplace team. The victim of his intimidation - a slight, black engineer named Allyn Wright, 32 - sat stoically in the first row of the courtroom, revealing none of the pain he poured into a letter to Hall in advance of the sentencing, and no relief or happiness at Judge's fate.

Tuesday's court proceeding was a lesson in zero tolerance of racial discrimination and intimidation.

Click here for the rest of the article
I imagine if we had a few more courageous district attorneys and federal judges like this one we would have less nooses being hung around the nation. I wonder if Judge Jane Hall was a Bush appointee?

Megan Williams Trust Fund

Not all of us could attend the candlelight vigil last night in West Virginia. However, all of us can participate in the TRUST FUND has been set up by Chase Bank for Megan Williams. A spokeswoman for Chase Bank said that donations to the trust fund for Megan can be made at any Chase Bank.

The donations can also be mailed to:

Welana Megan Williams Trust Fund Donation Account
707 Virginia St. E.
Charleston, WV 25301.

View source - Link to Charleston GazetteMail

Students in 'Blackface' Re-enact Jena Six Incident

The 'New South' appears to be endorsing the 'new Jim Crow'. Is there any other conclusion you can come to when you find educated folks making fun of the racial turmoil that is boiling just beneath the surface here in America? Some students down at the University of Louisiana of Louisiana posted a Facebook video reenacting the stomping incident in Jena, LA. The footage shows three students in blackface, playfully acting out the racially motivated assault on a fourth white student. In the background others can be heard yelling out racial epithets.

Shot on the banks of the Ouachita River, the minute-long video and a number of photos of the white students covered in mud and showing the number "6" with their fingers was posted on the Facebook page of Kristy Smith.

Ms. Smith is quoted saying "I'm not racist," but things "got a lil out of hand." However, she had time to think about it. It was a few days after the taping that she was bold enough to title the video, "The Jena 6 on the River".

Villagers, I just do not understand the mentality of people that think that race relations is a joking matter? When will we learn?

Declaration of Black European Women's Network

One of my colleagues in The AfroSpear is Adrianne George. She writes a powerful blog, Black Women in Europe, that is currently #48 on the list of Top Black Bloggers. She won the 2007 Black Weblog Award as 'Best International Blog'. Adrianne is a powerful sista.

She gathered with nubian sisters from 16 European Union states and Switzerland in Vienna on Sept 27-29 to create the Black European Womens Network (BEWNET). These sisters seek recognition of crucial role played by Black Women economically, politically, culturally and socially in the European context. They are determined to implement and mainstream Black Women´s Empowerment in Europe as a core policy issue.

Check out the five recommendations issued by BEWNET to the European Union leaders.

Villagers, take a moment to share your village voice about the five recommendations, BEWNET, Adrianne or Black women in general.

Audio: Mother Of Girl Assaulted & Arrested For Dropping Cake

Alex Jones interviews Latrisha Majors, the mother of Pleajhia Mervin, the high school student who was attacked by school security guard after dropping a piece of birthday cake. The youngster was arrested for battery and littering.

In the radio interview we learn that the police handcuffed the 16-year old to take her from the schoolyard to the police station. She had a broken wrist. How insensitive must you be to place handcuffs on a 16-year old girl with a broken wrist?

Anyhow, Ms. Majors provides a full and complete interview of the situation.

I was surprised to learn that a school assistant principal was caught on tape watching the violence by the security guard. Another oddity is that Ms. Majors called 911 to request police support when the school would not take her to Pleajhia. The police come to the school and end up arresting the parent, child, student that filmed the incident and that student's sister.

Villagers, this is an enlightening audio of radio interview with Latrisha Majors. The beat down by the security guard occured less than a week ago. Protest by parents and community leaders held last Friday in front of the school.

Are we over-reacting to this story? Is there a racial element to the violence by the security guard? Check it out and let us know what you think about this story.

Barack Obama Gains Momentum in Iowa

I was pleased to see the recent Newsweek Poll showing Barack Obama in the lead with likely Iowa caucus voters.

Newsweek asked, "If you were attending a Democratic caucus TODAY, which ONE of the following eight presidential candidates are you most likely to support?"

The poll results for the top three candidates were:

1. Barack Obama (28%)
2. Hillary Clinton (24%)
3. John Edwards (22%)

The inevitability of a Hillary Clinton nomination is blown away when Obama wins the Iowa primary in January 2008. Anyhow, this was the first time that I've seen Obama leading in any poll.

I wonder if the people talking to the pollsters will follow their convictions and pull the voting lever for a Black man?

Top Ten Black Bloggers (Oct 2007)

We reviewed 73 Black blogs last month. Based on that review we audaciously published our list of the Top Black Bloggers in September. Our list this month includes almost 300 blogs from across the diaspora. One impact is that the bloggers at the top of the list are much different in October than we had them listed last month.

The only qualification is that the blogger needs to be of African descent. The blogger does not have to be a member of The AfroSpear or the Afrosphere Bloggers Association. Of course, we invite all Black bloggers to join either (or both) of those fledging organizations. These Top Ten Black Bloggers are influential role models for the rest of us out here in the afrosphere.

The Technorati authority and rank numbers are shown in parenthesis. The authority indicates the number of blogs that are linked to this blogger over the past six months. The rank number indicates how many blogs are between the person listed and the #1 ranked blog in the world. Here are the Top Ten Black Bloggers for October 2007.

1. Pam Spaulding: Pam's House Blend (Authority: 1,097 / Rank: 1,953) - The blog won the 2006 Web Log Award as the Best LGBT Blog. Pam has an opinion about most anything in the political realm.


2. Angel Laws: Concrete Loop (Authority: 1,041 / Rank: 2,145) - This is a black celebrity entertainment blog with gossip, music, celebrity interviews, pictures and such.


3. Natasha E: Young, Black & Fabulous (Authority: 930 / Rank: 2,570) - Natasha provides you with all the hot gossip in Black Hollywood. Her blog focuses on the fabulous side of Black pop culture, trends and music ... all from a young, Black, and fabulous perspective of course.


4. Oliver Willis: Oliver Willis (Authority: 890 / Rank: 2,745) - Oliver began this blog in April 2005. His tag linke says that he is kryptonite to stupid. He posts regularly on politics.


5. Paula Mooney: Paula Mooney’s Tips (Authority: 822 / Rank: 4,001) - Paula is a powerful source of ideas for any blogger looking to increase their visitor traffic. She is very enthusiastic about the power of blogging. She works on blogs with both her husband and her father and she was recently a featured speaker at BlogHer in Chicago, IL.


6. Fresh Crunkjuice: Crunk & Disorderly (Authority: 788 / Rank: 3,331) - This blog was created in August 2004, however, it didn't get serious until May 2005. This is an active entertainment blog.


7. Sokari Ekine: Black Looks (581/ 5,328) - This blog began in June 2004. It is primarily about issues that impact our brothers and sisters in Africa. Sokari is currently in South Africa. Her posts cover a range of issues such as gender violence, racism, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and cancer. Black Looks is not for lightweights!


8. Darla Mack: Darla Mack News & Reviews (503 / 7,027) - Darla is a sister with a technology blog that has a unique niche of Nokia devices, S60, Nseries, Eseries and Symbian. She focuses on mobile technology and nokia phone reviews.


9. Terrance Heath: Republic of T (489 / 7,321) - Terrance lays it out for you. His blog reflects his life experiences as a Black, gay, liberal, buddhist, vegetarian dad.


10. Patrice Yursik: Afro Bella (398 / 9,487) - Patrice is a reformed tomboy from Trinidad. Her blog is dedicated to product reviews, ruminations about style, and interviews with women all shades of beautiful. Expect honest opinions about products, advertising, and entertainment specifically targeted to African American and Caribbean women.

---

HONORABLE MENTION (11-25): How To Split An Atom, Taking Place, Entre les Lignes de Jo Ann, Keith Boynkin, Sandra Rose, BlackProf.com, Truth & Opinion, The Angry Black Woman, What About Our Daughters, Where The Hell Am I?, Rod 2.0:Beta, Angry Black Bitch, The Field Negro and Stereotyped.

---

Our rankings lean heavily on the Technorati Authority and Rank score for each blog. We figure that if your content is strong enough for others to link to ... that is a strong indicator of your influence. I am very open to hearing from you on other factors that should be considered in future monthly Top Ten Black Bloggers listings.

You can post a message below if you want to know the ranking of your blog or find out if we have a listing for a Black blog or blogger that you respect. If our list grew 4-fold in the first month, we know it can continue to grow as we move forward.

Parents Protest Beatdown of Black Teen in Palmdale

One thing that we learned from the Jena Six affair is that we can no longer go away quietly into the night when one of our children is abused in a racially-biased manner. 16-year old Pleajhia Mervin was beat down by a school security guard for not cleaning up some cake crumbs from the floor.

Instead of calling a janitor the security guard decided it was best to break the wrist of the youngster.

The incident was caught on tape by a student with his cell phone camera. It shows 16-year-old Pleajhia Mervin being held down by a security guard. The school says it all started when students began throwing pieces of a birthday cake around the lunch room.

Dozens of parents, students and civil rights activists gathered in front Knight High School in Palmdale Friday morning to send the message. The message: Stop the security guard violence against students.

Najee Ali (Project Islamic Hope) said,

"We are seeing a trend of black students being victimized and today, we say enough is enough, enough is enough."

The security guard has been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Jim Clingman, nationally syndicated columnist, lays it out quite well in his essay, 'Here a Jena, There a Jena, Everywhere a Jena Jena'

Rudy Giuliani Decided Bo Derek is More Important Than the Black Community

Rudy Giuliani couldn't be at the PBS presidential debate to discuss issues of importance to African Americans last Thursday. He had to shake his groove thang with Bo Derek and two or three reporters in California. He valued the $100,000 he raised along with the endorsement from former governor Pete Wilson over an opportunity to talk directly to issues impacting Black people in this country. Check out the a 55-second video of Rudy's choices on the day of the PBS presidential debate hosted by Tavis Smiley.




Are there any Black leaders endorsing Rudy Giuliani for president? Or does he have a lily-white supporting cast in his campaign?

Megan Williams Raped by the System

We shared our disappointment about the decision by law enforcement officials picked Megan Williams up for some bounced checks a few days after she was attacked by a family of rednecks in West Virginia.

Megan Williams is charged with obtaining under false pretenses and writing a worthless check in Raleigh County, according to the Raleigh County warrant. The false check charge is for a $32.21 check to Dominos Pizza. The false pretenses charge is for $96.40 to the Kiddie Junction Consignment Shop in Beaver.

In Greenbrier County, Williams is wanted for eight worthless checks, according to the warrant for her arrest filed in Greenbrier County. One of the checks was for $173.79 to BSR Auto Supply.

She was wanted for two counts of worthless checks in Summers County, according to the warrant for her arrest filed in Summers County. One of the checks was for $220 to Jack W. Turner, the other was for $10.46 to Country Roads Store.

A bench warrant out for Williams in Summers County is for failing to appear at the arraignment for the worthless check charges, according to the court document filed in Summers County.

The original charges against Williams all stem from incidents in May 2006.

After the magistrate completed the arraignments for the three different counties, Megan Williams was taken to the Kanawha County Courthouse to be processed. She was released on $8,000 bond.

Her car was broken so she bought a part. She bought USED clothes and other things at the consignment shop. She probably paid "Jack W. Turner" to fix her car. She bought herself a pop, a hot dog and a candy bar at the corner store.

Maybe she thought she had the money in the bank. Maybe she did and someone stole it. Don't tell anyone in West Virginia ... but, many folks in this village have bounced a check or two in the past.

Who knows what the hell happened. What we do know is that rich white folks steal millions of dollars a day in so-called white-collar crime ... there is no justification for arresting anybody like Megan Williams less than 10 days after being raped and tortured.

Republicans Wax Poetic About Slavery While Skipping Debates

Drumbeats from Oliver Willis about a Michael Medved column that shares six reasons that republicans shouldn't feel bad about slavery. Coming on the heels of the disrespect shown by republicans at the recent PBS presidential debate hosted by Tavis Smiley ... is there any wonder why African Americans feel no kinship for the Republican Party. I still try to understand why Black conservatives feel they are safe with a party that is unwilling to talk with Black or Brown people in America.

Slavery wasn't all that bad. Presidential debates focused on African American issues aren't more important than fundraising events. Is there any issue where the republican party and people of color agree?

Villagers, why would anyone vote for a republican at local, state or national level?

White Mob Attacks Black Teens in New York

A few days ago the eyes of the world focused the president of Iran as he was a guest of a college campus in New York. Meanwhile, nobody seemed to notice another hate crime taking place in the streets of New York. Did you hear about the brutal attack on a college basketball team and two coaches that took place earlier this month?

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly indicates that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

Kelly weighed into the furor surrounding the violent beating of the Manhattan Community College sports team after community leaders blasted the NYPD's failure to report the incident as a racial attack. "I'm told at no time did either side make any statements concerning race, as far as it being racially motivated," Kelly said. "What we have done as a result of the Daily News article written today is engage our hate crimes task force to do an investigation of this matter."

The players say they were set upon by a gang of white men as they headed home on Sept. 11 from a four-hour practice at the lower Manhattan school. As the students passed the Patriot, a rowdy Chambers St. bar, they were bombarded with racist shouts of "n-----s" and "this is what slavery feels like," the players say.

One person in the group, Marquis Scott, 18, says he was thrown into the middle of the street, jumped on and kicked. Police arrived and immediately handcuffed Scott, the son of an NYPD officer, and charged him with misdemeanor assault while letting the assailants go, he said. The team called its coach, Chester Mapp. Mapp and an assistant coach followed the students to the Brooklyn Bridge subway station, where the students and the coaches were attacked, Mapp said.

"I'm very shook up, nervous, kind of scared," Mapp said.

Villagers, I am still trying to understand why the victim of racial attacks are always the ones that end up in handcuffs. We saw that in Jena, Palmdale and now it happens again in New York.

Why is it that the strange fruit of the past appears to be growing wild in America in the 21st century?

Palmdale Teen Beat by Security Guard Over Cake Crumbs

What is happening in America? Jailings, shootings, lynchings, nooses in schools, unjust criminal just-us actions in the courts, Black worker arrested and charged with assault for cooking "too salty" burger, Black woman and her child gang raped in Florida, Black woman raped and tortured by an entire redneck family in West Virginia.

And the beatdown continues ... Did you see what happened in Palmdale, CA?

A young Black girl assaulted by school security and called 'nappy-head' by the security guard because she didn't pick up crumbs off the cafeteria floor. At the end of the day three teens and a mother are arrested.

One of the students arrested caught the whole thing on video. The incident was instigated over cake.

It was a birthday party at Knight High School in Palmdale. Early last week, during lunch hour, students say the cake dropped, and then everything else dropped. There was mayhem and chaos. A student used his cell phone to capture video of 16-year-old Pleajhia Mervin being arrested by campus police early last week.

Mervin says a security guard slammed her against a table at a lunchroom at the high school and twisted her arms behind her back so violently, he broke her wrist. Her wrist is in a cast. "He put my arm behind my back and he started raising it until it hurt, so I told him, 'Stop, it hurts.' He had slammed me on the table and told me to hold still. He called me a 'nappy-head,' and that's when I just started crying," said Mervin.

Mervin claims she was roughed up simply because she failed to pick up every crumb of a birthday cake she accidentally dropped on the floor of the lunchroom during a lunch-hour birthday celebration for a friend. She says she thought she cleaned up the mess, but the security guard thought otherwise. "He said, 'You have to come pick the rest of this cake up.' So I said, 'I picked it up.' He gets on his walkie-talkie, he got a call, so I just started walking to class, and that's when he grabbed me," said Mervin.

Mervin says when the security guard realized he was being videotaped, he tackled the student shooting the video.

Mervin's mother, Latrisha Majors, said when she rushed to the school demanding to see her daughter, she was accused of battering the principal. She says she was then arrested and forced to spend the night in jail.

"This has caused such a disruption in my life," said Majors. "I try to explain this, but I can't. The 'nappy-head' thing, she doesn't understand that there is prejudice going on every day, all day long. It's not right."

Pleajhia Mervin has been expelled from school. She will have to go to an expulsion hearing. She says she's even been accused of battering the security guard, and was ticketed for littering. Her mother works for the school district. They fired her when they learned she had been arrested. A group of parents, students and community activists plan to protest outside the school.

Villagers, I come back to my original question, What is happening in America?

Mychal Bell of Jena Six Released Today

Mychal Bell was released from prison in Jena, LA today when his bail was reduced and the district attorney, Reed Walters, finally stopped piling on new charges and new excuses.

Villagers recall that Walters vowed to appeal the decision to turn Bell's case over to the juvenile system because of Bell's previous criminal convictions. He caved on that decision when he got a call from Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.

However, Walters couldn't leave well enough alone. He got up at his press conference today and said,

"I firmly believe, and I'm confident of the fact that had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened."

The momentum continues to build for racial justice in Jena, LA. However, The AfroSpear remains vigilante. We can count on the mainstream media to go back to ignoring racial INjustice as soon as OJ emerges from hiding.

Any thoughts on the developments since the Jena march last week?

Mychal Bell of Jena Six Gets Good News from Kathleen Blanco, Al Sharpton and Reed Walters

Good news today for Mychal Bell. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced that LaSalle Parrish DA Reed Walters would not contest the state appeals court ruling throwing out the adult convictions (calling for up to 15 years in prison) on Mychal Bell. The decision now must be made by Reed Walters on what he plans to do next with Bell and the other Jena Six juveniles.

Drumbeats came to us from Too Sense about the selective amnesia shown by Reed Walters in his recent New York Times op-ed. dNa wrote,

After completely ignoring the incident for months, a few white progressive bloggers declared Walters "reasonable" in his op-ed for the Times. But of course, since they just learned about the case on CNN, they have no idea how many other incidents of violence on behalf of white students Walters refused to prosecute. I wrote a very thorough rebuttal which notes that while Walters apparently thought the Jena Six's sneakers were deadly weapons, a beer bottle and shotgun in the hands of white person were not deemed to be similarly dangerous.

Click here to see the full rebuttal from dnA.

The momentum appears to be rolling in favor of the Jena Six. Hopefully this matter can be brought to a just conclusion in the near future. In the meantime, The AfroSpear will continue to monitor the situation.

Villagers, what is your take on the current Jena Six situation?